


In the Name of Whitney, Mariah, and Aretha – Amen

by bobaheadshark



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: A toilet is a good place to kinda propose, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Background Hux/Rose, Bad Karaoke, Bathroom Sex, Big Phasma Energy, Explicit Consent, F/M, Gets a bit meta, Like really bad karaoke that is literally what I wrote this fic about, New York City, One Shot, Possibly tipsy but not drunk sex, Reylo but happy, Settled Reylo, Sex can be funny, Slice of Life, Vaginal Sex, Valentine's Day, dive bar, make-up sex
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-21
Updated: 2020-02-21
Packaged: 2021-02-27 22:21:44
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,089
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22833208
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bobaheadshark/pseuds/bobaheadshark
Summary: “Ben.” Rose grip was viselike on his arm. “She's about to sing Whitney. What did youdo?”----A snapshot of happily-coupled NYC Ben and Rey via: one overblown Valentine’s Day fight, one dramatic rendition of karaoke, and one round of bang-and-make-up in a dive bar bathroom. Literary merit questionable, ridiculousness guaranteed. A #RFFA fic.
Relationships: Rey/Ben Solo, Rey/Ben Solo | Kylo Ren
Comments: 39
Kudos: 128
Collections: For one is both and both are one in love: The Reylo Fanfiction Anthology's Valentine's Day Exchange





	In the Name of Whitney, Mariah, and Aretha – Amen

**Author's Note:**

  * For [MBlair](https://archiveofourown.org/users/MBlair/gifts).



> Inspired by Mlair’s original prompt:  
>    
> _After a difficult breakup Ben goes to a bar and sees Rey sing, their eyes meet and evolve from there._
> 
> Mblair said it’s cool to go lateral as long as there’s fluff, so here’s a _very_ sideways take. I liked the idea of Ben and Rey who’ve been together a while but still disagree sometimes. And terrible karaoke.
> 
> Side note: Ben and Rey have been drinking, but there is definite enthusiastic consent before the banging. Putting it upfront in case that's anyone's squick. Also they have unprotected sex but they're in a long-term relationship, so assume they've navigated BC and all that already.
> 
> Update 22/02: light edited once more for style and typos but still probably didn't catch all the typos heheheh

* * *

In hindsight, the argument with Rey had been over something monumentally stupid. It wasn’t like one of their usual disagreements – Rey did not buy an “I’m sorry” slice of gourmet pepperoni pizza for Ben, Ben did not leave her a succulent with googly eyes on her side of the nightstand, they didn’t kiss and make up in the dozens of familiar positions they knew worked on their couch. 

No, this had been an argument for the ages. 

Overall, Ben thought, Valentine’s Day had been a success. Like the civil engineer that he was, he’d planned the whole day out to a T: 11am was for brunch, where he and Rey had fed each other fresh berry pancakes and gotten fully sloshed on bottomless mimosas. 1pm was when they’d linked arms and walked around Brooklyn Park, pointing out poodles and dachshunds and giving them made-up names like “Mr. Wiggleson” and “Weinermeister” before they collapsed onto each other with laughter. 2.15pm was when Rey dragged Ben by his coat lapels over to Concert Grove Pavilion and kissed him in a way that truly defied the acceptable norms of PDA – earning them pointed looks from more than a few Moncler-clad Park Slope residents. 

By 5pm, they were back in their Greenpoint apartment, and Rey was trying her best to distract Ben from turning on the TV. She almost succeeded when she ran her foot up and down the inside of his calf, and he knew from the inopportune slow-motion replays in his head that happened during meetings or on the subway that she was about two seconds from jumping his bones – and throwing him completely off his task.

“This is important,” he said, as Rey stroked circles into his upper thigh. 

“Okay. I mean, you know how I feel about fantasy films, but I look forward to you trying to change my mind.” 

Rey kissed his jaw and grabbed a fistful of sage and butter popcorn from the coffee table. He pressed a napkin into her hand before she could drop any into the seams of the couch. 

“The Wizard of Oz is not a fantasy movie, it’s an Old Hollywood classic.”

“Ben, the main characters include flying monkeys and a talking Campbell’s can.”

Ben bristled. “The tin man is an analogy for the futility of man against machine during a new industrial–”

She fed him two pieces of popcorn to shut him up. 

“Here’s an idea: maybe it’s okay to enjoy things...un-ironically? Rose and I love the Spice Girls, but we don’t try and turn it into a feminist thesis when their songs come on. Although it’s true that they were really ahead of their time.” She tossed a piece of popcorn in the air and caught it with her mouth. “Sometimes it’s just nice to like things because they’re fun?”

He sighed. Rey didn’t understand; this was his Citizen Kane. He also wasn’t convinced by her argument, but it wasn’t worth the fight when it was Valentine’s Day. So Ben dammed up the irrational part of his brain that wanted to scream about the deeper meaning of the movie, pulled her in to kiss her on the forehead, and simply said:

“Okay.”

His frustration dissipated by a fraction as she buried her face in his chest, and looked up at him.

“Thank you for sharing this with me, by the way. You really used to watch this with Leia?”

He nodded. “Han –” 

He paused. It still felt weird to say it, with the river full of history there, but it’d become easier since he and his father made amends last year. So he corrected himself. 

“ _Dad_ rolled his eyes every time she put it on, but he always stopped what he was doing to watch Dorothy sing ‘Over The Rainbow’.” 

Rey chewed as she contemplated this. 

“That’s sweet.”

Ben admitted that it was. In the three years they’d been together, she’d never once mapped her own baggage about her lack of family onto his, and the truth of that sat comfortably with him. It would’ve been easy for her to try and fix matters with his family, or fix him, but she didn’t – instead, she gave him the space he needed to navigate towards that resolution on his own. It was one of the things he loved most about her.

The popcorn tugged a memory out of his mind of when they’d first met. Hux had dragged him to the weekly quiz night at Phasma’s Bar, a hole-in-the-wall place on Atlantic Avenue. The first time he saw Rey, she crunched on a huge handful of bar peanuts as she devised a solution for the second round, “Capital Cities of Ancient Greece”, and her team was winning. He was enthralled by the way she chewed her pencil and scribbled on her paper, though he tried to hide it. That soon devolved to a bitter rivalry because he accused her of cheating on round five, “20th Century Mathematicians”, only to eat his words when it turned out she was right. It’d continued that way for months, razor-sharp words and a latent attraction neither of them wanted to admit, until one day — whether it was divine providence or mad coincidence, Ben didn’t know — he’d confronted her outside about some inconsequential stacking of the points system, and they’d ended up kissing.

It wasn’t long before he fell headfirst into her orbit, her bed, and her life. And the rest, as they said, was history. 

He chased the popcorn with a sip of soda and marvelled at his good fortune as the opening credits began to roll. 

“She raved nonstop about the bouquet, by the way. Ferrero Rochers were an inspired choice.” 

“Yeah, I caught the part where she said it was worth the diabetes risk. And when she shouted into the phone about you being her ‘favourite son, even though you’re my only one’.”

He smiled into the top of Rey’s hair. Life was good. 

Soon, Dorothy ran down the dirt path on the sepia screen, and they settled in for the film’s two-hour runtime. Rey gasped when the screen turned to colour, laughed when Dorothy greased the tin man, and grabbed his arm when the gang met the wizard. They both even managed not to distract each other with wandering hands (or mouths) for the entire duration of the film. 

And when Judy Garland finally uttered “there’s no place like home”, he blinked away his tears and hugged Rey tight. She still smelled like crisp winter and lakeside from the outside, and it felt safe, and familiar.

Then, she’d looked up at him and said the fateful words.

“I don’t know if I’m onboard with the message of that movie.”

He blinked twice.

“What?”

She pushed off him to sit cross-legged, and toyed with the hem of her T-Shirt.

“Why’s Elphaba the Wicked Witch of the West when all she wanted were her shoes back? The entirety of the plot could’ve been averted if Glinda just let her have the shoes.”

There was a squeak of leather as he scooted backwards on the couch.

“Rey, the shoes aren’t really the point. It’s more about the overall arc of her journey.”

“But don’t you find it strange that they set up Glinda and Elphaba as diametrically opposed when they all could be working towards the same goal? Which is to expose the artifice of the wizard–"

“No. You’re looking at this all wrong. You need to consider it in context, as a product of its time.”

She cocked her head to the side. “But you have to agree there’s redemptive potential in the story. That they missed.”

This wouldn’t do. He hadn’t shown her one of his favourite movies for her to dismantle it like this. Ben felt like he was watching one of those David Copperfield TV specials from his youth, except there was a flashing neon sign saying “THIS IS THE TRICK” where the floating lady was supposed to be. Unable to process this attack on his childhood nostalgia, he sprang off the couch and paced a deep trail onto the blue carpet.

“Rey, you’re not understanding this correctly. Glinda was a necessary foil so that the protagonist could overcome her jadedness towards the concept of home, and complete her narrative arc.”

Rey held two palms out in a _hold on there, buddy_ gesture. “This sounds a liiiittle bit mansplain-y if I’m gonna be honest, Ben. If we were being truly objective about this...”

And twenty minutes later, they stood on opposite sides of the room in a scene fit for a Pinter play, because the discussion had devolved to:

“Admit it - you’re emotionally over-invested in a story about an off-brand Pippi Longstocking who has a bad acid trip!” Rey shouted, pointing her finger at Ben.

Ben fumed. “I am not emotionally over-invested. And I will not stand here and let you insinuate that Dorothy Gale is some generic brand of salt that you can get at Walmart!”

“Well I shop at Walmart and it is perfectly fine!” 

“Jesus, that wasn’t even what I was saying!”

In Rey’s haste to get up she’d knocked over her cup of tea, and Ben watched as the liquid seeped into the front page of the _Times_ on their coffee table. 

“Ben,” Rey started, with a glare that would put Clint Eastwood to shame, “look into my eyes and tell me I don’t have a point. That it was silly of them to pit the witches against each other when the real villain’s the Wizard.”

“What? You are being unbelievable right now and I cannot believe we’re fighting about this.”

“Well you’re being a stubborn arse!”

“You’re the one who started all this over a...yellow brick road and a witch in a bubble!” 

“Why are you even yelling at me? You know I’m right!” 

And because the both of them were apparently unable to back down from a fight, and maybe the hangover was starting to settle in from their lunch – Rey turned on her heel, muttered “I’m going to Phas’s”, and walked out. 

## 

It was 8pm when Ben pushed open the swinging doors to Phas’s Bar. The Friday night V-Day crowd was a wall of noise as Ben waded through to toss his gloves and scarf on a barstool. A frat guy next to him was downing the last of what appeared to be three tequila shots, which Ben pointedly tried to ignore. 

“Benjamin.” It was Phasma, the bartender. An Amazonian blonde woman who could apply her black lipstick with one hand and toss drunkards out with the other with equal aplomb, and he’d seen her do it. The extent of her festive costuming efforts seemed to be a pink heart spray-painted onto the undercut of her hair, along with her usual torn jeans, a pair of men’s suspenders and a white tank. The overall effect screamed “don’t fuck with me, unless I tell you to first”. 

Ben mentally did a sign of the cross for never being young, foolish, or drunk enough to try anything stupid at her bar. 

Phas took one look at him and slid him a soda water with lime over the bar.

“Thanks,” he said, handing over his Amex for the tab. “Seen Rey?”

Phasma pointed to the front of the room. Under a collection of license plates with words like “Your Mom is a Nice Person” and “1-800-Tip-Your-Bartender”, there was a 8x8ft podium that Phas used to host a variety of weekly entertainment including drag queen bingo, factually inaccurate commentaries of American Ninja Warrior, and the same quiz night where Ben had met Rey. 

Tonight was the monthly karaoke special. He saw Rey poking at a screen with a drink in one hand and a clicker in the other, choosing a song while she swayed along to _Crocodile Rock_ on the speakers. Her topknot was in disarray, and in her haste to leave the house she seemed to have put on her lilac _Test Me, I’m a Scientist_ sweater backwards. 

She still, Ben thought, looked irritatingly cute. 

“Thank you, Sir,” came Jannah’s voice to Ben’s right. She looked at the bottle of Jack Daniels near Phasma’s vintage cash register like a long-lost friend as she poured herself a glass. Simultaneously, a strong waft of Tom Ford Noir indicated that Hux had materialised on Ben’s left. His college friend fired off an email on his phone at a breakneck pace, and took a seat as Ben nodded at him in greeting.

“Ah, Jannah. Almost didn’t recognise you out of your scrubs. How _are_ our city’s weak and vulnerable bodies?” 

“Lives still need saving. Still getting nice and fat skimming the Swiss accounts of the 1%?” Jannah shot back.

“Bottom feeding’s parasitically delightful as ever.” 

“Play nice, children.” Phasma chimed in as she cracked open a beer and passed it Hux. Hux lifted the amber bottle up to toast her. 

Sometimes, Ben thought, friendships were a marvel. How Rey managed to bring a Yale-Club-Card-toting private banker and a Bernie-voting EMT together at a Brooklyn dive bar every Friday without them tearing each other’s heads off was a miracle. 

Ben turned to face Phasma. “What do you know about film history?” 

“Enough. I did a module on it at Columbia.” 

“You went to Columbia?”

“Please. You aren’t the only one with an Ivy degree, though your insufferable attitude’s a dead giveaway.” 

“Point taken. Ever study the Wizard of Oz?”

“No, but I know it well enough. Shocking that the Wizard figured out IMAX well before we did.”

“What?” Ben frowned. “You know what, nevermind. I showed it to Rey earlier because it’s a really important film to me, and I wanted to share that experience. But then she had completely the wrong take on it and we got into this disagreement about what it all means, and the interpretation of it, all that.”

“Oh, is that it?”

He was taken aback. “She’s pretty upset. As am I.”

“Because if eight weeks of Plato and Socrates taught me anything – and I’m not convinced that it did – media can have multiple meanings and interpretations depending on what critical lens you use.”

“Phas. Relativism is solipsistic. Meaningless. If there’s not going to be one definitive interpretation, why have it at all?”

“No, Ben, it's _discourse_. Haven’t the two of you been together long enough to figure out your differences of opinion without throwing tantrums? It’s just, you know, navigating difference."

Phas raised her eyebrows as if to say “you know what you need to do”, and Ben mulled this over as she moved away to serve a new group of customers on the other side of the bar. The discussion left him disoriented, as if someone had yanked out a blanket under him and showed him the puzzles of his world had more contours than he’d thought. 

The sound of Poe arriving cut into his thoughts. The current in the air seemed to shift whenever he showed up, and tonight was no exception. 

“What’s up, gang,” Poe shouted. He shrugged off his leather jacket and slapped Ben so hard on the back that Ben almost dropped his drink. Rose and Finn followed close behind him, waving at Ben as they shouted their regular orders at Phas. 

“Hux! My man! Swindle another 15k at senior citizens’ bingo again?” Poe asked.

“Why do they even let you in there? You’re like, obscenely healthy.” Finn said.

Hux held his arms out and shrugged. “Can’t help if the old ladies find me irresistible.”

Poe snorted. “Well, congratulations on cornering the 70+ demographic. Does being the only entrant on geriatric Bachelor make you an automatic winner?” 

“Bite me, Dameron.”

“Well, I think it’s kinda sweet that you volunteer at an elderly home.” Rose piped up as she stirred her drink. 

Finn and Jannah exchanged a knowing look. For a second, there was only the sound of Elton John’s “ _lalala_ ”s over the speakers as Hux blushed as red as his hair. 

“Hey, by the way Jans, have you seen this video of dogs eating lemons? Because it’s totally adorable,” said Rose. 

Ben thought the deceptively diminutive woman had this in common with Rey – an ease of social grace, which Rose displayed just then, bailing Hux out of the awkward conversational pause. Soon, Rose and Jannah had moved on and were immersed in their own chatter, something Ben could just make out had to do with cats and YouTube’s monetisation strategy. 

Poe evidently decided that canines and citrus were not his speed, and turned to scan at the crowd, where he spotted Rey still at the karaoke machine.

“Oof. Messy topknot. Hey, did you two fight?” Poe asked.

Ben was appalled. “How did you even –”

“Ben.” Finn interjected and threw his arm around Poe. “You forget we lived with Peanut for four years. When you guys had your first fight, she got so distraught that she mixed her colours with our whites and it turned the whole laundry pile pink.” 

“She did? I thought she was mad at me because I said her Hot Dog Halloween costume was –”

Poe cut in. “Regardless. What was it about this time? You eat her rainy day Momofuku cookie? She bought two-ply instead of three-ply toilet paper? Did you,” Poe pointed his finger at him, “tell her you thought Beyoncé was overrated?”

Everyone stopped to stare at Ben.

He took a deep breath. “No. I don’t even know what we were arguing about. We watched the Wizard of Oz, and she seemed to like it, then for some reason we got into a shouting match about the movie’s meaning, and the last thing she said before she walked out was that I got it wrong because Glinda’s not as altruistic as she seems.”

“Oh RIGHT.” Poe said, clapping his hands together. “And here I was thinking it was importa– wait. But Elphaba isn’t all bad, if you think about it.” 

Ben groaned.

“Not you too. Can’t we enjoy stories as a product of their time?”

Rose frowned. “Ben, it’s a movie that has flying monkeys and a furry –” 

“I didn’t know that floated your boat.” Hux said, staring at Rose. 

“There’s a lot you don’t know about me, Armitage.” Rose replied, reaching for his bottle of Pilsner and peeling the label off in one smooth rip. 

There wasn’t long for Ben to dwell on this curious new development between his friends, because Debbie Harry sang a final riotous “ _call me_ ” on the speakers, and the lights dimmed to signal the start of the next karaoke track. In the distance, Ben could just make out Rey stepping up to the mic. She tapped it and cleared her throat a few times. 

“Oh, this is gonna be good,” Hux muttered. 

Ben turned to move closer to the stage, but was frozen to the spot by the sight of Rey under the red and green cast of the unseasonable Christmas lights. For a second, he felt sucker-punched by how she appeared, as if illuminated by a thousand tipsy, dancing fireflies. 

The chatter of the bar tapered off in anticipation of the singer about to take the stage. From this distance, he could see Rey stand a bit straighter, and she clutched the mic with the gravitas of a woman about to sing an aria at Carnegie Hall, rather than to a rowdy crowd at a Brooklyn dive bar. 

“This one goes out...to my boyfriend, wherever you are.” 

She took a deep breath.

_iiiiiiiiiiiiiifffffffffffffffffffffffffffff eeeeyyyyyyyeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee_

_sshhoouuuuuuuuuuULD ssssssttttAAAYYYY –_

“Ben.” Rose grip was viselike on his arm. “She picked Whitney. What did you _do_?” 

_iiiiii would oooooonlllyy beeeee in, youuurrrr waaaaaaaaa-heyyy_

It was, for lack of a better word, horrible. She was so off-key that if Ben could visualise the notes on paper, it’d look less like sheet music and more like a seismic chart. Rey could barely hold a tune on a good day, but listening to her mangle this power ballad, and knowing that he was the addressee – this was an exquisite new form of aural punishment.

_So I'll goooooooooo, buuuuuut eyyyyeeeeeee know..._

“Should someone… stop her?” Jannah asked, unable to peel her eyes away from the slow-motion car crash on the stage.

Finn snorted into his negroni. “I’ll give you fifty bucks to try.” 

Hux appeared to be convulsing with silent laughter. Rose put her hand on his shoulder, and shook her head in warning. They all watched as Rey crouched down on the stage, and the white stripes on her workout leggings flexed as she put her full body into the lines about “ _thinking of you, every step of the way_ ”. In the dramatic pause and the swell of the synthetic backing strings before the chorus, Rey rubbed her nose, and turned to look directly at Ben. 

_aannNNdd iiiiiiiiiiiiii-yeeeeyeEEE_

_Will al-ways loveeeee yewwwwww_

It was worse than nails on a chalkboard, more awful than sitting through one of Snoke’s three hour lectures about soil pressure reinforcements, and it had all the musical bombast of tinny elevator music. 

But despite the outsized ridiculousness of it all, Ben knew that like everything Rey did in her life, she was 100% committed. And she put so much of her heart into the song that Ben couldn’t fight the twitch at the corners of his mouth. 

He couldn’t leave her alone up there.

In a few short strides he’d elbowed his way through the crowd and clambered onto the podium – which was really just a half step up, but in that moment, could have been the final paces to the high turret of a castle. Except it felt, strangely, more like he had gone to appease a dragon, rather than to rescue a princess.

Someone thrust a mic into Ben’s hands as he stared at Rey, though she didn’t look at him. In the corner of his eye he spied the karaoke machine’s bootleg video playing: a white lady ran in slow motion out of a church, followed by a galloping horse, and for some inexplicable reason, the altar was on fire. 

Ben didn’t need to look at the prompter though. He knew all the fucking words. 

_Bittersweet memories_

_That is all I’m taking with me_

The bar erupted into a small round of applause at the sound of his rich baritone filling the room, strong and stable thanks to half of his junior high spent in choirs, which Hux had never let him live down when he’d found out. 

_So goodbye_

_Please don’t cry_

He tugged at her wrist and urged her to look at him. She whirled around then, and the irritation that he saw there melted away as he sang the next few lines with every earnest bone in his body.

_We both know I’m not_

_What you need_

_And I_

_I, will always love you –_

Rey snorted and shook her head at him, which felt like a small concession, so he grinned and pulled her closer. Forgiveness blossomed in her expression, like the shutters of a bay window opening to sunlight.

They leaned into each other and touched foreheads as the tinny sax solo blared in the background. It was an awkward embrace because they both still held on to their mics, but Ben and Rey were lost in their own universe for a brief moment as they swayed with the music. 

“You’re an idiot,” she whispered to him during the instrumental interlude.

“So are you. That’s why we make a good pair.”

“What, like a pair of candlesticks at a flea market?”

He levelled a serious look at her. “I’m your flea.”

“Oh, you’re annoying enough to be one.” 

A few people in the crowd turned on the lights of their phones, and waved them in the air as if it were a 90s concert. 

Rey brushed her hand along Ben’s jaw. “Hey, in all seriousness. I’m sorry for making fun of your movie.”

“And I’m sorry for mansplaining.” 

“We’re both stubborn. We both make mistakes. Let’s just...try to be more understanding next time, yeah?”

“Yeah. We’ve got this.” He smiled at her in reassurance.

“We do.” She smiled back. “Now shut up and kiss me, stupid.”

He didn’t hesitate, and the fit of her body against his, the softness of her hair under his hands, and the taste of her mouth was pure bliss as his lips met hers. 

The crowd erupted in cheers.

“FINALLY.” Poe yelled from the back. 

By the time they pulled apart, Whitney Houston wished Kevin Costner “ _joy and happiness_ ”, and the karaoke video had panned to a shot of the lady in a tree, gazing wistfully into the distance. The bar crowd parted, and Ben laughed as his friends rushed forward to join him and Rey onstage. With seven of them, it was a tight fit, but the group exchanged glances over the two mics, tensed in anticipation for what they knew they needed to do. 

It was time for the epic key change. 

The seven of them exploded into a cacophony, arms akimbo, a live-action Jackson Pollack of sonic disaster:

_AND EEEEEEEYYYYYEEEEEEEEYEEEEEEE! WILL AL-WAYS LOOOOOOOVE YOU_

A woman in the front row covered her ears, and a man near the back doubled over with laughter. Ben spotted Phas behind the bar, who stared at the stage absolutely stone-faced, but held her beat-up phone aloft to record the scene. To Ben’s right, Poe stood with his arms outstretched, doing his best impression of Kate Winslet in Titanic. Next to Poe, Finn and Jannah punched the air as if the motion of doing so might wring even greater pathos out of Whitney’s words. Meanwhile, Hux looked as if he wanted to die, but Rose pulled him closer to the mic – and though Hux huffed, he sang the closing lines along with her in a surprisingly respectable tenor. 

It had to be one of the most insane and embarrassing moments of Ben’s life. Worse than the time Leia cut his hair too short when he was eight, worse than the time he took Poe’s dodgy food cart recommendation and he got food poisoning before a pitch to the city council, worse than the time he tried to ask Rey out early on and she’d misheard and thought he wanted her to “pass the grapes”. 

But he found that in that moment, he didn’t really care too much. 

_I WILL AL-WAYS. LOVE YOUUUUUUUUU_

_I WILL AL-WAYS. LOVE YOUUUUUUUUU_

Jannah’s honeyed voice rang out on the climactic high notes while Poe and Finn pranced with their arms up like ballerinas. Seized by a theatrical muse, Ben spun Rey into a dramatic tango dip. 

Despite the outrageousness of the moment, for a second it was just him, and her, surrounded by their ludicrous group of friends, and Ben just felt… grateful. 

The song came to its final few notes, Ben mouthed the final words to Rey: 

_Darling, I’ll always, always…_

_Love you._

The crowd whooped, and he pulled a dollar bill out of his hair as he kissed Rey again. They were still locked in an embrace by the time Finn had queued the next song. When the heavy bassline of Notorious B.I.G.’s _Hypnotise_ played, Ben instinctively knew it was the limit of what his white man’s sense of rhythm could handle, so he pulled Rey up and threw his arm around her shoulders to walk offstage. They squeezed past Finn and Jannah who spat the song’s opening bars with aplomb, and sidestepped Poe, who’d wandered off to make come-hither eye contact with a group of tattooed revellers nearby. 

Rose and Hux hadn’t moved. Instead, Rose leaned in to whisper in Hux’s ear, and Hux blushed crimson again. They made an odd pair to be sure, but it seemed to be the start of something tender and fragile. Not necessarily what Ben would’ve pinned for Hux – but, Ben mused, this was the same man who did cry at the opening sequence of _March of the Penguins_ once. So perhaps it wasn’t a total surprise.

Nonetheless, all of that soon receded from his mind as Rey dragged him away from the stage. 

“Are we going somewhere to talk?” Ben shouted over the music.

“I think we’re going to do a lot more than just talk,” Rey said, throwing him a heated look as she led him towards an exit.

Ben felt his blood pressure spike at her promise. And the last thing he saw before he pulled the hallway door shut behind them was Phasma at the bar, waving his Amex at him like a token of victory.

##

For some inexplicable reason, Phas’s interior decorating choices for the unisex bathroom included a disco ball, mismatched mosaic tiles, and a massive 90s Microsoft screensaver-style fish mural on the wall. But Ben barely noticed any of it as he fumbled with the lock on the door, and Rey all but clambered onto him like a horny koala. 

It was a testament to Rey’s attractiveness that his dick was already throbbing, despite the visual mindfuck that was the bathroom. Rey’s mouth seemed to be focused on something of profound importance on his collarbone as Ben shoved aside a starfish-emblazoned box of paper towels, and hoisted his girlfriend onto the bathroom counter. 

“Do you think we could’ve picked a more clichéd spot to kiss and make up?” Rey asked, breathless.

“Honestly, I’m not super focused on that right now.” 

She unzipped his fly and stroked his erection. That felt good.

“For a dive bar, I have to say, Phas keeps this bathroom surprisingly clean.”

“Rey, for once… please, shhhh.” 

Ben reached to pull the hem of her sweater up and over her head, and the feel of her bare skin under his palms almost singed away the little self-control he had left. But then he was confounded by Rey’s bra, which had a combination of crisscrossed straps so elaborate, he couldn’t figure out how to begin taking it off. 

“Why is this like… lingerie jenga?”

“Drats. Sorry, it’s a lululemon day.” 

He looked at her, confused. 

“What!” she exclaimed. “They’re comfier.” 

“But how do I…”

“Lemme do it – Ben, gimme a sec.” 

She swatted his hands away from her chest, and he gave her a sullen look as she peeled the offending item of clothing off.

“And don’t sulk.” Rey added, booping him on the nose. “Though you do look very cute when you pout.” 

Thankfully, her tits were soon free of their spandex prison, and he wasted no time taking one of her pert nipples in his mouth. Rey’s long moan as he lavished her with his tongue after that was all the encouragement he needed to continue his ministrations.

A stray part of Ben’s brain thought this was probably quite a funny scene – him with his T-shirt still on and his jeans unzipped, stroking his cock while Rey sat topless with one hand shoved down her leggings to finger herself. It wasn’t long before he nipped at the sensitive spots on Rey’s ribcage and stomach with his teeth, in the way he knew she liked best, and she all but whined “need you in me now” as she yanked her leggings off without ceremony. 

She wasn’t wearing any underwear, which was the first thing that threatened to short-circuit his brain. The second was when she grazed her palms on his T-shirt and told him “keep it on, I want a souvenir”, which just about sent his sensory dashboard into a perilous nosedive. 

He stilled for a second before they continued.

“Rey, you sure you’re okay to do this right now?”

Her gaze was molten. “If you don’t fuck me on this bathroom counter _right now_ , we’re breaking up.”

“Your wish is my command.”

Things moved quickly after that. Ben shucked his pants and boxers down near his ankles, he put his hands on Rey’s hips to angle her just so, and then he sheathed himself inside her – slow, steady and surrounded by her heat. Rey still shivered a bit each time they did this, as if she could barely handle his cock this deep inside her, which ignited a savage sense of satisfaction in him as he started to move. 

Fucking her in the bathroom felt fast and wrong and a little debased, but there wasn’t any shame in it either. They soon worked out a familiar rhythm and he watched her tits bounce, and the wash of pleasure over him was so overwhelming that he wanted to —

“Ow.” Rey said. She rubbed her head where she’d hit it on the mirror.

Ben paused. “Shit. Are you okay? Sorry.”

“All good.” She gave him a crooked grin and brushed a sweaty lock of hair out of his face. “Hey, I didn’t say anything about stopping.” 

So he didn’t. He picked up the pace once more, and took Rey’s hand to pin it up against the wall. Underneath where their fingers were interlaced, he could just make out the sharpied words _may the farts be with you_ , and he almost wanted to laugh. But the throb of Rey’s pussy around him was so tight and wonderful that it sent his mind spiralling into a million pieces, and the only coherent thought he had for some time was a caveman voice going “ _MINE, MINE, MINE_ ”.

“Ben, feels so good, please –”

He knew she was close, so he moved one of his hands to thumb circles on her clit, and it wasn’t long before she yelled “Fuck!” as she came on his cock. He chased the wave of pleasure with a few thrusts of his hips, and followed her over the edge in quick succession. 

Ben’s breath formed a small circle of steam at the side of Rey’s face in the bathroom mirror as they panted against each other, spent. In an instant of startling clarity, he realised how much he loved this woman, how much he would sacrifice for her, how wonderful she was – and for a while, it was all he could do to not become emotionally undone in her hands like a useless pile of putty.

“Well. That wasn’t horrible.” Rey stated, looking up at him.

_Romantic._

“Want to leave a review on Yelp?”

“7/10 toilet, would fuck in again. Wallpaper leaves much to be desired, somewhat distracting. Natural scenery, on the other hand...” She squeezed his ass, and he chuckled. 

He nuzzled into Rey’s temple. “Hey, I love you.”

“I love you, too.”

“Permission to watch more movies with you, read books with you, and make you so many cups of PG Tips that you’ll get sick of me in your old age?”

“Ben Solo.” Rey narrowed her eyes at him. “Did you just post-coital propose to me in a dive bar bathroom?” 

He shrugged. “Yeah, guess I did.”

She smacked him in the chest. “Well first of all, yes. There’s no other answer, because I’d never get sick of you. And secondly, I’m glad you know where I stand when it comes to the superior brand of English Breakfast tea.”

He stilled her hand where it hovered over his heart, and stopped her rambling with a soft kiss. Then, they smiled at each other – two idiots, utterly smitten.

The moment was swiftly punctured by his softening erection.

“Uh, I should probably pull out now.”

“Good idea.” Rey replied. 

They continued to talk as they cleaned up and pulled their clothes back on. 

“So,” she ventured. “If we’re talking about our future, and movie nights – I guess we should watch Wicked next?”

“I’ll find it on YouTube. At least we’ll agree that _Defying Gravity_ is the definitive 2000s Broadway number.”

Rey froze on the spot with her leggings halfway pulled up.

“You know what, controversial opinion, but I’d say _Let It Go_ was the superior–”

He groaned, and what remained of their romantic interlude was soon interrupted by a furious rap on the door. 

“You’d better not be having sex in there!” Phasma yelled.

They exchanged a look, and Rey shouted “too late!” before they both burst into laughter. 

“It’s fine. We can have a civil discussion about this.” Ben said as he re-zipped his jeans. “Just one more thing. Please don’t do Whitney Houston dirty like that ever again.”

Rey pondered.

“Nope. And next time, I’m singing Aretha too.” 

“Rey….” he warned.

But he resolved to let it slide as Rey slipped her hand in his. He leaned over to kiss her forehead, and then they stood together – ready to face Phas’s wrath, their friends, and a lifetime of terrible karaoke that awaited them beyond the door.

**Author's Note:**

> This is a RFFA treat that got longer than what I envisioned, but in a way that enjoyable fics always do! 
> 
> Was writing down to the wire and this is half-beta'd, so if there are weirdisms or typos, lemme know.
> 
> Do leave a kudos/comment/feedback if you liked it, or had thoughts. Comments make my day 🎉 Thanks for reading.
> 
> Come say hi on [Twitter](https://twitter.com/bobaheadshark)!


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